Mariska Hargitay

About Mariska Hargitay

Mariska Magdolna Hargitay (born January 23, 1964) is a Golden Globe- and Emmy Award- winning American actress, best known for her role as Det. Olivia Benson on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.

Hargitay was born at St. John's Hospital in Santa Monica, California, the daughter of Jayne Mansfield, an actress and 1950s-era sex symbol, and Hungarian-born former Mr. Universe Mickey Hargitay. Her first and middle names are Hungarian and refer to Mary Magdalene (Mariska is a diminutive of Maria). Her family name has Hungarian references also. It means: "of Hargita". Hargitay has two half-sisters, Jayne Marie Mansfield and Tina Hargitay; two brothers, Miklós and Zoltan Hargitay; and a half-brother, Antonio Ottaviano (a.k.a. Tony Cimber), a former film director whose works include the female wrestling show Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling.

Hargitay's parents had divorced in May 1963, but a judge later found their Mexican divorce invalid. They had reconciled a few months before Mariska's birth in January 1964 but soon separated again; and in August 1964, the Mexican divorce was ruled legal. A few weeks later, Mansfield married the director Matt Cimber, who had directed her in a 1964 production of the William Inge play Bus Stop.